Diabetic nephropathy (DN), a well-known complication of diabetes, is the leading cause of chronic renal failure and end-stage renal disease (ESRD). The limited efficacy of the standard of care, which only delays the progression to ESRD to a limited extent, coupled with our incomplete understanding of this multifaceted disease, highlights the importance of unraveling novel therapeutic targets. This 1-day scientific symposium titled, Diabetic Kidney Disease: Drug Discovery and Clinical Development Challenges will be presented by the New York Academy of Sciences on December 9, 2014, in New York City. This symposium will blend new technologies, target-disease associations, physiology-based insights, and identify novel targets, with the goals of identifying and delivering novel drug candidates into the clinic, improving current treatments, and developing new therapeutic strategies. The event will convene approximately 150 attendees ranging from basic scientists and clinical investigators in academia, industry, and government; to pharmaceutical strategists, and regulatory experts. The three central aims of this conference are to: (i) provide neutral forum through lectures, interactive debates, and networking activities for discussing current hurdles and emerging innovative approaches to DN-targeted therapy, such as preclinical models and clinical trials, signaling pathways, identification of druggable targets, capillary loss and excess anti-angiogenic activity associated with advanced disease states, and targeting the renal microvasculature; (ii) showcase and encourage the participation of early career, female, and underrepresented minority investigators via short talks, poster presentations, travel fellowships, career mentoring activities, and discounted registration; and (iii) foster collaboratin among international investigators from all sectors to promote the translation of research into safer and more efficient diabetic kidney disease therapeutics. The symposium goals align well with the mission of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) to support medical research and research training. The NIDDK's goal to disseminate science-based information on diabetes and kidney diseases will be met through the symposium's simulcast and archival as a webinar and open-access, online, multimedia Academy eBriefing, and publication of an open-access, Section 508- compliant Meeting Report in Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, which will distribute the scientific knowledge and ideas exchanged at the symposium to the global research and medical communities. This symposium is especially timely given that a wealth of new data has emerged within distinct research areas (e.g., novel cell types, targets, and therapies) and from varied scientific approaches (e.g., animal models, novel target tissues). A collaborative examination of this new information among all diabetic kidney disease stakeholders is therefore of significant value for guiding research forward in the field - particularly with respect to potential novel targets and delivery of novel drug candidates into the clinic.